Baggage-check.



T. G. PORTMORE.

BAGGAGE CHECK.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 25, 1910.

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Wm-E5555: InvErTbnRi THOMAS G. ,PORTMORE, OF SOUTH FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO DEN NISON MANUFACTURING COMPANY;

OF SOUTH FB-AMINGHAM, MASSACHU- SETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

BAGG-AG-E-CHECK.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar.3,1914.

Application filed November 25, 1910. Serial N 0. 594,045.

T 0 all win/117,56 may concern Be it known that I, THOMAS G. PoR'r- MORE, residing at South Framingham in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Baggage-Checks, of which the following is a specification.

My invention is comprised in the structure herein described, of a baggage check, which is composed of a tag portion or string portion, adapted to attachment to a piece of baggage by a string, and one or more check portions or stubs, which in use are to be detached from the tag or string portion.

The conditions of use of baggage checks are well known, and my object, to which the within described improvements are ad dressed, isto provide a baggage check which shall be amply s'trong'to preclude accidental detachment of a stub, while at the same time so weak along the intended line of'sepa'ration as not to resist unduly the characteristic twitch, employed by baggage checkers in a hurry, so that the stub is perfectly certain to be torn ofi on the predetermined line without erratic, diagonal removal of any of the outside layers or laminae of the card of which the tag is made, on which the highly important printed matter and numbers are printed or written.

'Heretofore, checks of miscellaneous kinds have been provided with stubs or the like, and with various devices for weakening the duplicate .line on which the check and stub are intended to be divided, to wit: (1) Rows of small perforations. set close together, (2) Rows of printed and indented dashes. (3) ScoriIlgS, either continuous, or more usually, as a dotted line, penetrating only part way through the card. (at) Incisions; these in thin paper, like postage stamps or toilet paper.

In carrying out my invention, the several portions of the check are connected by a plurality of widely separated connecting portions of the check-material, arranged in a row across the check. Between these connecting portions the card of which the check is composed is completely excised-that is to say. cut out, as distinguished from merely cut through, or gashed-by means of slots, these slots are elongated, preferably rectangular, and much longer than the connecting portions which remain between them, inte- I g l l grally attached to the parts of the check which lie on either side of the line of slots.

The drawing hereto annexed illustrates a baggage check made according to my invention.

Tn'this drawing, a re tag portion, to beattac ed to a piece of baggage by a string passed through the aperture a b, 6' represent check portions, intended to be detached 'from each other and from the taggportion a.

between the parts a and b, or b and Z) elongated slots 0 are cut out of the card ma te 'ial,"leaving widely separated relatively narrow, uncut connecting portions 0. The slots c are preferably uniform, as are also the connecting portions 0. The slots 0 effect complete severance between the adjacent portions of the check (as a and 5) throughout the entire length of each slot. As herein shown, the slots 0 are at least three times as long as the uncut connecting portions 0. Preferably also the card of which the check" is made is notched on each side. as at 0 0*, the inner part of c of the notch being of the same width as the slot 0. These notches by breaking the continuity of the"edge of the card'c'ontribute in some resents the string or measure to the 'certain initiation of the tear alongthe' line of the slots, though they may be dispensed with and still leave a structure entirely practical for the purposes intended.

T e manner in which the above described baggage check behaves in practice is as follows: Since, in order to form slots which effect complete severance throughout their entire length, it is necessary to cut out openings (such as shown in the drawing) and thus to shear out of the body of the card pieces of card material. the cuts have clearly defined end walls. which define also the sides of the connecting pieces, and these connecting pieces, though occupying in the aggregate a relatively small part of the total width of the card, are perfectly integral with the body of the card and thus with adjacent portions thereof (as a and 7)). Thus the connecting portions 0 retain ample strength to resist all accidental stresses, and all ordinary stresses except that produced by a twitching or tearing pull on one of the joined portions. YVhen the part b is sharply pulled cornerwise, the first connecting piece strained by out cutting out the card material as in makbaggage check is ing a slot such as 0') so that this cause contributory to tearing the outer laminae diagonally is eliminated.

The rectangular shape of the slots 0 makes the intervening bridge pieces 0 substantially uniform in width (measured along the line of slots) from one end of each bridge piece to the other Therefore, when the distributed uniformly over the whole ure is of'the bridge piece, and no sharp or salient i ng parts of its material removed to angle is produced to render fracture inevitable. Thus the length and the uniformity of width of the bridge pieces 0 combine to prevent accidental detachment of the tag portion, while the relatively small number and wide spacing of these bridge pieces make it easy to tear off the tag portions without danger of mutilating either part of the baggage check.

I claim:

1. A checking card, as for'baggage, comprising portions joined by bridge pieces, said bridge pieces being separated by regions, materially longer than the width of a brid e piece transversely of the card, from i -whic regions the card material is excised.'

2. A checking card, as for baggage, havform a 'ing accidentally bent the fiexname to this specification,

line of elongated slots across the body of the card, said slots separated by bridge pieces narrow in contrast to the length of the slots.

3. A checking card, as for baggage, having parts of its material removed to form a line. of elongated slots across the body of the card, said slots separated by bridge pieces narrow in contrast to the length of the slots, the end slots of the line forming open notches in the edges of the card.

4. A checking card, as for baggage, comprising portions joined by bridge pieces, the card having parts of its material removed between said bridge pieces to form elongated slots transversely of the card, the width of the bridge pieces transversely of the card bematerially less than the length of the slots, while the length of the bridge pieces longitudinally of the card is such as to permit uniform flexion of the said bridge pieces without fracture thereof.

5. A checking card, as for baggage, comprising portions joined by bridge pieces 0 substantially uniform width transversely of the card, the card having parts of its material removed between said bridge pieces to form elongated slots transversely of the card, the width of the bridge pieces transversely of the card being materially less than the length of the slots, v of the bridge pieces longitudinally of the card is such as to permit uniform flexion of the said bridge pieces without fracture thereof.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

THOMAS G. PORTMORE. Witnesses:

B. J. Norms, H. B. DAVIS.

while the length 

